It is with deep sadness that I report the death of one of our own, C. Ione
Sims, who is wonderfully eulogized by her friend and student, in the
paragraphs below.  I had the sad task of removing her from our
subscriberlist today. It is always difficult to lose a wonderful person like
this, and our heart are with her family.

Peace.

Kathleen

Date: Tue, 7 Jul 1998 02:03:52 -0700 (PDT)
From: "C. Ione Sims CNM/MSN/IBCLC" <[log in to unmask]>
Message-Id: <[log in to unmask]>
To: [log in to unmask]
References: <[log in to unmask]>
In-Reply-To: <[log in to unmask]>
X-Loop: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Your e-mail re: ' Varney's pocket '
Content-Type: text

My wife passed away on June 6.  If this message came in response to
a post from a mailing list, please contact the list-owner and have
this e-mail address removed.

Our family thanks all of you for your support.

Ralph Sims
[log in to unmask]


        A BRIDGE

by Katherine Jensen, CNM


        She wanted to be a bridge. She wanted her writing to form the
trusses of that bridge. She would write about her journey from DEM to CNM.
She would tell us why she became a midwife, why she did home birth, why
she chose to pursue a Masters in Nursing and become a Certified
Nurse-Midwife after hundreds of births and close to 25 years as an
unlicensed birth practitioner.

        "I just need to get home and write," she told me on the phone in
the last month of her life. "Maybe my story can help lessen the chasm
between DEMs and CNMs, between home birth and hospital based practices."
She got home, but she was too sick to write. It is up to others of us now
to tell her story.

        Ione died at home. She died less than a year after she was
diagnosed with cancer. She was lovingly tended by her friends, her family,
by midwives. She would have been 47 on July 4th. She is survived by Ralph,
her husband of 25 years, and their four children, Ben, 24, Haven, 22,
Brian, 15, and Ezra, 12, all born at home.

        C. Ione Sims, Class 6, member of 107th graduating class of the
Frontier School of Midwifery and Family Nursing. Ione received her BSN
from the University of WA in 1989 and her MSN from Case Western Reserve in
OH in 1996. She graduated from CNEP in 1995. She was active in the WA
state ACNM chapter and on the chapter Web Page. She worked with Katherine
C. Carr to create the Exit Interview for CNEP which allowed students to
evaluate the entire program rather than one course at a time.

        It's easy to make lists of her accomplishments. It's harder to
convey on paper what an incredible human being the world has lost. She was
my good friend for 23 years. She was my teacher in the early 1970's when I
wanted to be a "lay" midwife and delivery babies at home. I was privileged
to be her preceptor, when she decided to pursue nurse-midwifery through
CNEP in the 1990's.

        She created Community Nurse Midwife: Sensitive, Personalized Care
for the Childbearing Year and Beyond, a midwifery service that served
rural WA in the areas of Shelton and Raymond. She founded Sagefemmes, a
private midwifery Internet list and was an active participant in many
cyberspace lists, web pages and communications. Ione was a prolific and
talented writer of poetry and midwifery and breastfeeding articles for
Midwifery Today, Mothering, Birthkit and many other publications. She
wrote protocols, brochures and pamphlets for midwifery care and
breastfeeding which she generously shared for the benefit of all women and
the midwives who care for them. As such, Ione touched the lives of
thousands of people she never met and she will be sorely missed by
thousands who never met her.

        The world is less wonderful without her.

        Ione's life long devotion to midwifery and her generosity of
spirit have been inspiring to all who know her. She understood the
politics of our profession. She struggled with them in her own life, but
she was determined to make the world a better place for ALL midwives and
the families they serve. She hoped her life would serve as an example to
both CNMs and DEMs, a model of compatibility and celebration. She lived
what we may all strive to accomplish. She was my friend. She will always
be my mentor.

        Donations may be made in Ione's memory to the ACNM Foundation
towards a scholarship for a CNEP student or DEM pursuing a CNM degree.

Kathleen B. Bruce, BSN, IBCLC co-owner Lactnet,TLC, Indep. Consultant
mailto:[log in to unmask]
LACTNET Archives http://library.ummed.edu/lsv/archives/lactnet.html
For LACTNET quilt raffle: http://together.net/~kbruce/kbblact.html